Cold Desert Animals Adaptations

Other common adaptations seen in desert animals include big ears light-colored coats humps to store fat and adaptations that help conserve water.

Cold desert animals adaptations. Anatomical Adaptations Baleen plates in the mouth instead of teeth made of keratin the same tough protein that makes hair and nails. Spikes protect cacti from animals. Have large bat-like ears radiate body heat and help keep them cool.

After staying in the desert for winter the deer travel back for summer. Adaption to nocturnal life The average daytime temperatures in the desert often exceed more than 38C. Since the temperatures below the surface are much cooler than above it many of the small to medium-sized animals living in the desert dig burrows to spend the hot daytime hours only coming out during the night.

Desert Reptiles May cold-blooded animals digest their food using the suns energy. Just like animals plants need to adapt to the dryness cold temperatures and saltiness of the soils of cold deserts. Water is used up in the coolingprocess and can quickly dehydrate even the most water retentive animal so most desert animals have adapted their.

Animals living in cold or temperate deserts have thick exoskeletons to protect them from the cold. Plant and animal bodies are made up of a number of complex biological processes which take place within a narrow range of temperatures. There are quite a number of animals that live in the Gobi Great Basin and Atacama deserts.

One of the biggest water retention adaptations desert animals have is simply to avoid the sun and extreme heat. They have developed special adaptations to withstand the cold temperatures like the presence of very thick fur and the inability to sweat. Have light coloured fur to reflect sunlight and keep their bodies cools.

These animals stay in their burrows during the hot days and emerge at night to feed. Most cold desert shrubs are deciduous but some are partially deciduous meaning they lose part. Animal Adaptations Deer inhabit some of these areas only in winter having grown a thick fur coat and then migrate in the summer season after shedding this coat.